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Communication

Want to read a novel in 90 minutes?

Friday, September 26th, 2014

Too much to do, not enough time! Sounds familiar? No wonder we feel frustrated when we have to read large amounts of material in limited time.

Due to our dwindling attention span caused by technology and the emergence of e-books, rapid serial visual presentation technology, or RSVP is becoming more popular. It’s not new technology, and in fact, has been around for almost a decade now. (*see below for alternative speed readers)

spritz The latest of these applications is Spritz. The Boston-based company specialises in text streaming technology and how it can be integrated into our daily communication. When Samsung released the Gear S Smartwatch Spritz even came pre-installed with it.

According to Spritz, when we read, we only use 20% of our time to actually process what we’re reading. The other 80% is spent wasted moving your eyes around and scanning for the “Optimal Recognition Point” (ORP)

The ORP is a specific section of a word your brain needs to process to understand the written text. It then assembles each word into an understandable sentence. Spritz does this thinking for you by highlighting the OPR in red and aligning them all at the same place on your screen. Subsequently your eyes focus on only one spot, which in turn causes you to read faster.

Spritz allows you to choose your own reading speed ranging from 250 words per minute to 1000 words per minute. With practice your reading speed will increase and you’ll be able to not only read efficiently, but also comprehend what you’ve read.

We’ve tested Spritz and it does enable you to read much faster than you normally would. If you need to read documentation for work or research, Spritz might well be the answer. But do you really want to read a novel in an hour and a half? (Quite possible according to Spritz)

This way of reading might however be beneficial for people suffering from dyslexia, a short attention span or other reading disabilities.

Spritz is available in both an application format for your phone or e-reader, but also as an add-on called Spritzlet for your web browser. Both can be downloaded for free at www.spritzinc.com.

*Alternatively also try Spreeder, Quickreader, Read Quick or Firefox’s RSVP reader.

[SOURCES: www.cbsnews.com, www.time.com, www.globalnews.com, www.abcnews.com]

Tags: Spritz
Posted in Apps, Communication, General | Comments Off on Want to read a novel in 90 minutes?

Confused by fault reporting?

Friday, September 5th, 2014

There are various ways to contact IT if your PC is giving you a hard time. Most of you know you can contact the IT Service desk at 808 4367 to report a technical error, but you can also send an e-mail to help@sun.ac.za.

To successfully log a call, the Service Desk needs the following information:

1. A description of the problem
2. Phone number
3. Room number
4. Department and building
5. Asset number of the PC, laptop, printer, etc.

A request will automatically be logged in the IT request system and a reference number will be sent to you via e-mail. This reference number can be used if you need to make an inquiry about the status of your call.

If you’d like to check the status of your request, you can go to https://iheat.sun.ac.za/hss and log on with your username and password.

Click on the relevant CallID displayed on the list.

Status will indicate the progress of the request.

Solved and Closed statuses indicates that the request has been completed.*

Responded indicates an IT technician is aware of the request and has contacted the user by phone or e-mail.

Acknowledged indicates an IT technician is aware of the request, but the user hasn’t been contacted yet.

*If the technician has already contacted the user unsuccessfully three times, whether by phone or e-mail or if a call has been open for at least a week, it will be automatically closed. In this case an e-mail will be sent to notify the user.

Take note that a second e-mail, helpinfo@sun.ac.za can ONLY be used for general IT related inquiries. This e-mail address does not automatically log your call on the system and therefore, you’re not guaranteed your problem will receive the urgent attention you require. Rather send mail to help@sun.ac.za in this case.

IT can also be contacted via Skype (handle = ITStellenUni) for inquiries.

Inquiries such as “How do I apply for an IT service?”, “What are the purchasing procedures?”, etc. can be sent to helpinfo@sun.ac.za. Questions will be answered by e-mail.

Alternatively you can log your fault at https://iheat.sun.ac.za/webheat.

More information on the various options can be found on the IT wiki.

Tags: IT service desk
Posted in Communication | Comments Off on Confused by fault reporting?

Useful, free web apps you should know about

Friday, August 8th, 2014

As part of the expansion of the web, the last decade has seen the rise of thousands —if not millions —of web apps: often-simple tools that allow users to complete specific tasks via a web page from any computer connected to the internet.

The possibilities are almost endless: think of a task you need to complete and you can be nearly certain that there will be a useful web app that fits the job. The key, however, is to know where to look. And that’s where this guide comes in.

Below, you’ll find a list of a few tried-and-tested web apps that —if used correctly —can make your life much, much easier. Try them. Use them. Share them.

NOTE TAKING AND STUDY AIDS

Evernote: A very popular note management solution, allowing you to pull in notes from your tablet, computer, phone and elsewhere. The web app lets you create, edit, manage and search your notes library. www.evernote.com

Mindmap: An easy-to-use tool that lets you create your own mind maps quickly and efficiently. Great for summarising course notes, articles and books. www.mindmup.com

Gliffy and LucidChart: Both great apps for illustrating a concept with diagrams. Both include many useful shapes and tools. However, both have some limits on the free account. Still, they are great for occasional diagramming. www.gliffy.com and www.lucidchart.com

Google Drive Documents: Google’s web-based word processor. It’s perfect for summaries, essays and more and you and other people can type in the same document at the same time. This makes it perfect for team planning, agendas and taking minutes in a meeting. Google Drive Documents is part of — you guessed it — Google Drive, so you’ll need to create an account there. drive.google.com

Cram: A lightweight flashcard tool that lets you create your own flashcards (having one word/phrase on the front and one on the back) and then review them alphabetically or randomly. Very useful for any content for which you have to remember a key point for a specific concept, e.g. in learning a language. www.cram.com

PRESENTATIONS

Prezi: Tired of slideshows with sparkling text and way too many bullet points? Do your next presentation with Prezi. It’s a great way to illustrate how your ideas fit into one another because all your content is displayed on a single canvas, with the ‘view’ simply panning and zooming from one area to another. www.prezi.com

Google Drive Presentations: If you prefer a more traditional ‘slideshow’, or if Prezi isn’t suitable for communicating your message, you can use Google’s PowerPoint alternative for free. While it’s not as feature-packed as PowerPoint, it’s still a great way to do presentations if you don’t want to dish out money for the aforementioned duo. drive.google.com

RESEARCH

Google Scholar: This app brings the power of Google search to research. By letting you search thousands of academic databases (including those used by EBSCOHost, JSTOR, etc.) quickly and easily, it cuts down the time necessary to find the articles you need for projects, essays and theses. As a bonus, it also lets you import article metadata into a citation manager (see Zotero below) directly from the search results page. When accessing Google Scholar from outside the Stellenbosch University, use scholar.google.com.ez.sun.ac.za to get access to the journals to which the university subscribes. Otherwise: scholar.google.com

[Special mention] Zotero: While Zotero isn’t strictly speaking a web app (although it also runs in your browser), it’s just too good and relevant not to include here. For a full Zotero guide, check out the previous article in this series.

ORGANISATION AND COMMUNICATION

Google Calendar: This app is the gold standard in free calendar tools. It helps you keep track of your appointments, events, deadlines and general planning — all while still being very easy to use. It can also keep in sync with all your devices, so that you can have access to your calendar on your tablet, phone and computer. calendar.google.com

Gmail: This e-mail service has ever-expanding storage space and great search functionality. Gmail is different from Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo Mail and other services, in that it uses ‘labels’ instead of traditional folders. You can tag any e-mail with one or more labels and subsequently search by that label. Also, because you have such a large amount of space (15 GB as of early 2014), you never have to delete e-mails and lose them forever. Consequently, because you have access to all e-mails you ever sent or received, Gmail includes powerful searching capabilities (think: Google for your inbox) that allow you to delve into your tons and tons of messages effortlessly. www.gmail.com

Wunderlist: task management made easy — and beautiful. Keep track of your daily to-do list, priorities, shopping list and more. You can also share task lists with friends — a great tool for group projects. www.wunderlist.com

FILE SHARING

Google Drive: Install Google Drive on your computer and then simply drop a file in the assigned folder to upload it. Once uploaded, you can share files with friends. Google Drive has a range of web-based editors that are included by default —two of which were previously mentioned —that make collaboration easy. You can also share specific folders in your Drive with your friends, which works really well to keep all the files for a group project stored in one place. drive.google.com

Dropbox: simple and easy file sharing. While it works in the same way as Google Drive, it doesn’t include the online editors built into the latter. However, Dropbox remains one of the simplest ways to share files between devices and people. Dropbox is particularly useful when you need to send a large file via e-mail and don’t want to clog up the recipient’s mail storage: simply upload the file to your Dropbox and then share the link in an e-mail. www.dropbox.com

[ARTICLE BY JOHANNES JONKER]

Posted in Apps, Communication, Research | Comments Off on Useful, free web apps you should know about

Snap and shop!

Friday, August 8th, 2014

snapscan3 Have you ever wondered what the cryptic image (see right) at some restaurants, coffee shops and markets is? Here’s a hint – it’s not some secret code of a society you don’t belong to. On the contrary, it’s something useful guaranteed to make your life somewhat easier.

SnapScan is a smartphone payment app developed right here in Stellenbosch by technology start-up company FireID, located in Tegnopark – Stellenbosch’s own Silicon Valley. The guys from FireID realised that a cashless society, where payments were easier and faster to make, is became a necessity.

In 2013 SnapScan won the South African App of the year and it has been featured on Business Insider’s Top 12 African Start-ups list. In May of this year it joined in partnership with Standard Bank.

SnapScan benefits both the customer and the merchant. For the customer it provides an alternative for cash and credit cards, it’s faster and is meant to be more secure.

You no longer have to wait to have a payment processed at a terminal or risk carrying a credit card with you. You simply take a picture of the merchant’s unique QR code (the cryptic image) with your phone, enter your pin and the amount you want to pay. After the transaction is completed the customer and merchant receives an SMS notification to confirm.

The merchant never handles your credit card or details. Your card details are stored securely on your phone, encrypted and protected by a pin you select yourself.

It doesn’t cost you anything, no sign-up fee, setup, installation or monthly fee. All you need to do is download the app from the Apple or Google Play store, fill in your card details and you’re good to go. The app is available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.

For merchants the application is easy and fast. All they need is a cell phone and they can process payments, whether it’s a coffee shop or an informal trader at a market. The Big Issue, the non-profit magazine sold at intersections, vendors have recently been enabled to use SnapScan.

Not too bad for something starting out only in a number of stores around in Stellenbosch – from 600 merchants at the end of 2013 to 12 000 at present. So what are you waiting for? Start snapping!

More info on SnapScan:

https://www.facebook.com/SnapScanApp
http://www.getsnapscan.com/

[SOURCES: http://mybroadband.co.za, http://www.techcentral.co.za, http://www.2oceansvibe.com, http://ventureburn.com]

Posted in Communication, Connectivity, General | Comments Off on Snap and shop!

Digital calendars: handy helpers

Friday, July 25th, 2014

We’ve all experienced that sinking feeling sometime or another: when you realise the big interview you thought was tomorrow is actually today. Or when you have to cancel going out with your best friend because you forgot you had to be somewhere else. Or when you get a call from someone important asking why you didn’t show up for your meeting with them.

The fact of modern life is this: it’s busy. There’s a lot to keep track of: meetings, birthdays, events and, of course, your social life, to name but a few. To try to remember all of this is a waste of mental energy – energy that you could have put to better use.

Using a paper planner is a step forward, in the sense that you don’t have to remember everything. But really, keeping track of your life can be better, easier and more fun. And that’s precisely where a digital calendar comes into the picture.

WHY USE A DIGITAL CALENDAR?

A digital calendar:

Let’s you easily create events (including repeating ones) and move them around – much better than having to cross out or erase in a paper planner;
Can present your schedule to you in different formats, e.g. as a list of upcoming events, a day view, week view, month view, etc. – useful in different situations;
Let’s you set reminders for important events;
Let’s you store additional information with an event, e.g. where it takes place, as well as a description; and
Let’s you search your events – extremely handy in the rare cases when you need it.

As an added extra, a digital calendar doubles as a diary of sorts: you’ll easily be able to navigate back in time to see what you did at a specific point in the past.

THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE

There are a number of digital calendar tools available today, some as software that you install on your computer (e.g. Microsoft Outlook) and some as “cloud” calendars (i.e. where your data is securely stored online). While you can experiment with what works for you, Google Calendar – a free, cloud-based calendar – is bound to be a good choice, because it’s simple to use and easily synced with multiple devices (e.g. your phone, tablet and computer).

Google Calendar (Free)

Once you’ve signed up, you’ll get a blank calendar, ready for you to start adding events. You’ll be able to access your calendar from any computer with an internet connection by entering the above address in your web browser. If you have a smartphone or tablet, you can easily set it up to synchronise events with your Google Calendar, so you will have your schedule with you (and can add new events) wherever you go. Reading the welcoming page will get you up and running with all this and more in no time.

THE GOLDEN RULE

When it comes to entering events, it’s all or nothing.

To get the most out of your digital calendar you’ll need to commit to adding everything you want to keep track of. No more “I don’t need to add that meeting; I’m sure I’ll remember it”. If you can’t look at your calendar and trust that it’s really giving you a complete picture of your schedule, it’s really of no use.

What this means in practical terms:

Whenever someone wants to schedule something with you, take a look at your calendar first. The initial comments from your friends will stop as soon as they see how much easier it makes your life.
Once you have a date or time for an activity, create a new event immediately, so as to prevent forgetting to add it later. For example, the moment you hear about a test in class, you and your friend decide on a coffee date or you see a notice of your favourite band performing in Aandklas or Bohemia, quickly jot it down in your calendar.

The easiest way to accomplish both of the above is to have your calendar set up on your phone or tablet (see the previous section). While the above may sound like a cumbersome habit, you’ll get used to it very quickly. And from what you’re going to gain from it, it’s totally worth it.

OTHER HELPFUL TIPS AND TRICKS

By simply taking a look at your calendar before scheduling events and entering new ones the moment you hear about them, you’ll already be able to get a better grip on the practicalities of your daily life. To get even more from your calendar, use these pointers:

Create sub-calendars for different facets of your life (e.g. “Tests and exams”, “Classes and tuts”, “Projects” and “Personal and social”);
Add repeating events for your classes;
Use event descriptions to add handy information (e.g. the scope of a test or the topic of a meeting);
Add “TBC” (To be confirmed) or “TBD” (To be decided) after event titles to keep track of events of which the time is tentative (e.g. “John’s braai TBC”), or of events that you haven’t decided whether or not you want to go. This prevents you from accidentally scheduling events in those time slots because you didn’t see that there already was a chance of something else going on.
Create a daily to-do list on your calendar by adding all-day events with “[ ]” in front of the title (e.g. “[ ] Buy groceries”). Once you’ve completed the task, ‘tick’ the box by changing the text to “[X]” (e.g. “[X] Buy groceries”). It’s a simple trick, but very powerful.

A LAST NOTE

While using a digital calendar will certainly add value to your life, there’s perhaps one last, more general principle you need to bear in mind: don’t over-organise. Leave room for the unexpected, spontaneous and serendipitous; don’t be a calendar fundamentalist (“if it’s not on my calendar, it’s not happening”). At the same time, don’t lose your reins on life and allow it to run away with you. After all, a calendar is there to help simplify your life. And, if you use it well, it certainly will.

[ARTICLE BY JOHANNES JONKER]

Posted in Communication | 2 Comments »

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